Ailing Woman Settles Suite
North Jersey Metro, The Herald News
October 18, 1988

By: Diane Haines

PATERSON - A Clifton woman critically ill with cancer, and her family accepted nearly $1 million to settle a medical malpractice trial against two Montclair doctors.

The settlement was agreed to just before jurors were shown the videotaped testimony of Carol Geyer, 35, of Lyall Road. She was diagnosed as having breast cancer one year after she first complained of lumps to Dr. Richard DeMarsico and Dr. Gary DeGrande of the Greater Montclair Group. She is willing to testify in court.

Geyer and her husband Glenn were awarded $375,000 in cash. Starting December 10, Glenn Geyer will be awarded $500 a month for the next 25 years.

Between 1999 and 2003 the couple's three children, Gary, Matthew and Megan, will be awarded $268,000. Also between 1993 and 2018, Glenn Geyer will be awarded $195,000.

The settlement ended the trial, which started last week before Superior Court Judge Thomas R. Rumana.

It was alleged Carol Geyer had a benign cyst removed from her breast in 1977. She claimed she first consulted the Greater Montclair Group for a pregnancy in 1980.

During a subsequent pregnancy in 1985, Carol Geyer noticed three lumps on her left breast. She said she visited DeMarsico in April 1985 and told him about the lumps but that he failed to do a mammography or ultra-sound test.

The suit claimed this deviated from accepted medical practices and cause the cancer to go unchecked and reach a life-threatening stage.

Carol Geyer alleged that in June 1986 she was feeling discomfort in her breast and visited Dr. J. Beall Rodgers who diagnosed the cancer and performed a radical mastectomy. The suit alleged that the delay of 12 to 14 months in diagnosing the cancer caused it to spread to Geyer's lymph nodes.